Paper short abstract:

This paper puts forth an understanding of Colombian tropel as a bodily practice that beyond its form as a violent encounter and based on a performative understanding of it allows us to recognise its subversive potential stimulating reflection processes, questioning capitalism and power structures.

Paper long abstract:

Although violent encounters between hooded persons [the encapuchados] and Colombian police forces are a recurrent phenomenon, there are only few scholars that engage with the analysis of those confrontations commonly referred to as “tropeles”. At the National University of Colombia (UNAL) a particular kind, named organised tropeles, can be observed and call on critical social movement research to reflect on it in performative terms.

Based on ethnographic research conducted on the campus of the UNAL this paper shows that the tropel, understood as a performative ritual, allows us to gain an understanding of its deeper meaning beyond its surface understanding and common portrayal as a violent act.

With regard to the conceptions of body and spatiality it is argued that through tropeles the encapuchados call into question the social order. Through their practice, they are challenging manifestations of global capitalism and the Colombian state by making their bodies a site for the inscription and production of culture. Moreover, they temporarily transform the public space into an area of contention that redefines the occupation of space(s) understood as representative of the social order. It is discussed that these collective performances enacted by young militants have a community-building effect on the students of the university. The paper will show that these practices bear a subversive potential, which can challenge existing power structures, stimulate reflection processes, and initiate transformation. With this, the paper aims to present a new perspective on the tropeles in Colombia, currently absent from the recent discourse regarding this practice.